Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe Blu-ray Movie Review

Where's Riddick when you really need him?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 5, 2016

As I mentioned in Blu-ray.com’s Mojin - The Lost Legend Blu-ray review, a couple (and maybe more than just a couple) of elements seemed to get “lost in translation” in that film, though curiously one that didn’t but which added a kind of (perhaps politically or “pronunciationally” incorrect) inadvertent humor to the enterprise was the naming of the heroine Shirley, an Western name with the “r-l” diphthong that at least some Mandarin speakers find to be challenging. Adding to the general confusion, if not the humor, is the fact that Mojin - The Lost Legend was the second film in a Chinese franchise, though it received a domestic Blu-ray release months before Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe, the first film in the series. I frankly can’t say that watching the first film helped to clear up any salient plot points in the second film, and in fact even after having watched Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe more than once now, I probably have more questions than ever. As with Mojin - The Lost Legend, Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe was released in 3D in China but (once again) is presented “flat” (i.e., 2D) on domestic Blu-ray, a rather curious decision considering the fact that the film was obviously designed to exploit “in your face” theatrics. (Is it really that much more costly to author and manufacture 3D Blu-rays? This is not a cheeky question—I’m actually kind of curious about it by this point, after Well Go USA and a number of other labels which tend to release Asian product have continually brought out 3D films on 2D Blu-ray.) Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe indulges in not one but actually several “Moishe the Explainer” moments as it details the efforts of tomb raiders Hu Bayi (Mark Chao), Shirley Yang (Yao Chen) and Professor Yang (Wang Qingxiang), Shirley’s father and a scientist with a not very “secret” secret. (Observant readers will perhaps have noticed that different actors portray Hu and Shirley in this film than in Mojin — The Lost Legend, something else that doesn’t exactly knit the series together in organic unity.)

As an opening sequence in Mojin — The Lost Legend seems to hint, there’s some kind of backstory between Hu and Shirley, one that isn’t overly detailed in that film, but which is curiously just as circumscribed in Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe. There is a bit of background provided, albeit in dribs and drabs, including the fact that Shirley’s “real” name is Ping (how she is adorned with the moniker “Shirley” is one of this film’s really odd formulations, and one which I must assume is based on elements of the films’ source novels). This history between the characters is kind of weirdly folded into some rather interesting subtext dealing with what looks like Mao’s “Cultural Revolution: The Next Generation”, if indeed I can be cheeky about things for a moment.

As I mentioned in the review of Mojin — The Lost Legend, there were tangential references to Red Guards, or at least students caught up in the “glories” of Chinese Communism, and that’s once again on display here. What’s fascinating, at least for those who follow the generally pretty tamped down political atmosphere in (mainland) China, is how potentially provocative some of these depictions are. A kind of Red Theater Troupe repeatedly sings the praises of China’s burgeoning oil industry, and yet the productions seem to be geared toward provoking laughter. Even more telling, when our explorers finally get to the supposed center of China’s oil industry, it’s a devastated town rocked by near Chernobyl-like disaster (albeit from demonic monsters, not a nuclear meltdown). It’s as if director and co-writer Lu Chuan is oh, so gently “poking the bear” (or whatever the appropriate Chinese animal stand in might be), letting the audience see the hollowness of the promises that were made to them for over a generation.

Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe meanders its way through an increasingly perplexing series of plot points that spans several years (superimposed text keeps the viewer aware of the timespan), one which includes the intrepid explorers discovering an underground pagoda (or something like that), after a series of other, near The X-Files leves of alien-human interaction which are briefly detailed at various points in the film, including a manic prologue and several intersitial “explanatory” moments later. But the film is never really all that clear about what has happened in the past or indeed what is going on within the scope of the film itself. I’m still not completely sure whether the film’s titular ghostly tribe refers to the spirits surrounding the tomb of an ancient prince, or to a species of alien-human hybrids whose genetic abnormalities make them burst into flame once they turn 40 (shades of a combustible Logan's Run).

Much like Mojin — The Lost Legend, Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe exploits a videogame ambience and is at least intermittent fun in spite of its often confounding tendencies. This is one of those films where the audience simply is going to have let go and let the questionable flow of “information” take them where it will. Things frequently don’t make one whit of sense in this film, but like any videogame it’s all about getting to the next level without thinking too much about what’s gone on before.

Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. This video presentation is much in line with the look I described in our Mojin - The Lost Legend Blu-ray review, though the banding anomalies I mentioned in that review are much more prevalent and noticeable here, especially in a long underwater sequence. The obvious attempts to provide dimensionality for the 3D theatrical exhibition still offer substantial "depth" at times here, albeit obviously in a 2D environment. The palette is quite lush and lustrous at times, exploiting both barren desert environments and some more colorful underground tombs where bright reds and blues predominate. Contrast is generally strong, helping to provide above average shadow detail in many dark sequences.

Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Again much like Mojin - The Lost Legend, Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track (in Mandarin with optional English subtitles) is a fun and immersive listening experience. LFE thunders through the subwoofer in two especially remarkable sequences, one involving an explosion in a cave and a later one involving an avalanche. Fun effects sequences like nasty "fire bats" that bite soldiers and make them explode also provide opportunities for well placed discrete channelization. Dialogue is also rendered cleanly and clearly and encounters no prioritization issues.

Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Making Of (1080p; 2:20) offers some brief looks at elements like VFX creation and the like.


• Trailer (1080p; 1:14)

Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I'm frankly still not sure about huge swaths of Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe's convoluted plot meanderings, but that said, the film is still consistently entertaining in a "popcorn munching" sort of way. The film employs the same kind of shtick laden comedy that Mojin - The Lost Legend did, and its repeated "Moishe the Explainer" segments don't ever end up really explaining all that much, but things are visually and sonically arresting virtually the entire way of the heroes' perilous journey. With some perhaps major caveats kept firmly in mind, Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe comes Recommended.